Green norms for clean hydropower: Case of SHP

Rivers without water cannot be called rivers

Potential & plans for the future

• The estimated potential for power generation from small hydropower in the country is 20,000 MW from about 6,500 identified sites – about 4000 MW at little over 1000 sites installed

• Out of this potential, 50% lies in the states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh

• The 12th Five Year Plan targets an addition of 2100 MW -- about 500 SHP projects

• Draft National Mission on Small Hydro just released – to install 500 MW in next 2 years and 4500 MW in subsequent 3 years – more than what we have installed so far

What is a Small Hydro?

COUNTRY/ORGANISATION LIMIT (IN MW)

Sweden 1.5

UK 5

United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)

10

Norway 10

European Union 20

Australia 20

India 25

Brazil 30

China 50

No ecological definition. India is the only country that considers

only SHP as renewable energy. No rationale.

Small vs. Large (RoR on River Bhagirathi)

• Diversion length in SHP is 6 times the Large Hydro projects in Bhagirathi River basin projects, Uttarakhand

Parameter per MW for

SHP

per MW for

LHP

Ratio of

Small/Large

Diversion

Length (m) 319.61 53.45 5.98

Head (m) 15.84 0.89 17.85

Annual

Generation

(MU)

5.88 4.28 1.38

Environmental Impacts

• Multiple impacts on the local environment and ecology

• Ecological - Aquatic flora and fauna specifically impact on fish.

• Impact on wildlife due to forest diversion and linear intrusion

• Physical – Flow of the river, Water quality, sediment carrying capacity, erosion, ground water quality and recharge, climate, soil and geology

• Humans – Conflict over water depletion, landslides, muck disposal, and socio-economic issues

Ecological impacts not studied

• The impacts of SHP plants, dams and the drying out of river beds on fish in rivers is, to a large extent, unknown. There is a dearth of studies

• Even in large projects, it is not studied during EIA

• Hydro power projects isolates fish populations and hinders migration (ex. many fish species migrate for spawning)

• New species are still being discovered in small isolated streams on which SHPs is coming up.

• Many new discoveries In the Western Ghats

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Forest diversion and Impacts on Wildlife

• Analysis of 138 SHP projects

• Average diversion: 1 ha/MW

LINEAR INTRUSION: Access roads and transmission lines to and from multiple small plants lead to forest fragmentation – isolation of species and disruption of the movements of animals. Increase in human-animal conflict

Climate change impacts not understood

Three key reports in last 7 years:

• IPCC fourth assessment report (AR4): Extreme rainfall events are going to increase over Indian sub-continent.

• IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters (SREX), 2011: Climate change leading to changes in the frequency, intensity, spatial extent, duration, and timing of extreme weather events. Countries like India highly vulnerable to such changes.

• IPCC fifth assessment report (AR5): In general, India will get more rains, but in less rainy days – intensity of rainfall will increase

Heavy rainfall events

(> 100 mm/day) and

very heavy events

(>150 mm/day) are

increasing and

moderate events (5-

100 mm/day) are

decreasing.

Source: Goswami B

N et.al, 2006

Increase in extreme rainfall

PRECIS regional climate model

Predicted changes in

Rainfall in India

CSE’s Field Research: Poor practices

• Physical verification found complete dried up river beds downstream; though claimed 10% discharge

• No stream restoration work had been undertaken

• No proper muck disposal plan had been made and the muck was being disposed off at the exit of the adit tunnels - Accepted practice is erosion and washing of muck during monsoons

• In trench type weir, no provision for environmental flow

• Poor performance on slope stabilization and afforestation

Cumulative Impact

• Kempehole and Nethravati river in Karnataka: 44 SHP projects planned

• Alaknanda and Bhagirathi rivers 70 hydro projects. In these 40 projects SHP

• The impact is cumulative with many other development projects in terms of forest use and linear intrusion from roads and power lines

• Cascade operation of hydro power stations leads to almost drying up of the natural channel of the stream during low flow periods.

Not designed for ecology

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Birahi Ganga II

Monthly Average Flow Available Design Flow Required

Key issues

• No criterion on distance between two projects – over-crowding of projects

• No criteria on length of river to be diverted -- if all planned projects come up in Bhagirathi and Alaknanda basins, 60-80% of the river ‘affected’

• No concept of ecological flow – projects “planned” for 10% or less

Existing Regulations

• No EIA and EC

• Ecological flows: Himachal Pradesh is the only state to come up with norms for environmental flow

• Projects within 10 km from any wildlife sanctuaries or national parks – “Assessment” by the State Board for Wildlife and then on to the National Board for Wildlife – all cleared

• Forest Clearances required. If the forest diversion is less than 5 ha, then it can be cleared at the state level.

State Pollution Control Board

Category of project (Red - most concern, Orange - medium concern, Green - least concern)

States Category

Rajasthan Green

Uttarakhand Red

Karnataka Green

Haryana Green

CAG audit findings have revealed that almost 75% of the projects are operating without the consent of the UEPPCB

Green norms

• Environmental impacts must be understood; Carrying capacity study over a river basin should be executed for all rivers for sustainable development of SHP

• ‘Appropriate’ distance requirement between projects must be mandatory

• Ecological flow must be mandatory -- mimic river flows so as to keep it very close to the natural flows regime.

• e-flow policy regime must effectively implementable by different hydro projects through monitoring

• Total river length diversion must be capped

Green norms

• SHP plants above 1 MW in size should be included under EIA notification 2006 as Category B projects

• Forest diversion should take into consideration the impacts of linear intrusion due to roads and transmission lines.

• Proper implementation of existing norms (muck disposal, afforestation, stream restoration etc.)

• Benefits from the projects must be shared with the local communities. They should have the first right over the power generated by hydropower

• The river has more than enough for all. But for this, put the river first; our needs next.

CHANDRA BHUSHAN

Deputy Director General

www.cseindia.org